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New Matilda to stop publishing

New Matilda announced today it will stop publishing after 25th of June. The online magazine has been creating content since 2004 and has built the careers of writers including satirist Ben Pobje and national affairs correspondent, Ben Eltham, but failed to turn a profit.

Editor Marni Cordell attributes the decision to ongoing financial problems. “It probably won’t surprise you to learn that newmatilda.com has never operated on a profit. However, we had projected that the site would break even by 2010.”

Despite securing big advertisers including banks and Apple, New Matilda is one of a number of online publications struggling to make a business case for online journalism. When founder Stephen Mayne sold Crikey in 2005, ABC Online called the website “financially unstable”.

At the time Mayne commented “Despite the impressive growth of Crikey, financially it has always been a struggle and to this day we still have Crikey-related liabilities of almost $50,000.” In the five years since, online journalism remains anything but a get rich quick scheme.